Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, it's been about a month now. The little male bearded which was found in the alley is doing well, and is still super sweet, tame as a pup. He's still got his paint on him, but I am holding out hope that when he goes through shed he'll lose that.

We have never found out who dumped him, but I am very grateful to have found him before he died or was killed.

Sounds like it has a nice home now, good for you !

Excerpt from an inbox
I recently rescued a bearded dragon because while at Petland Discounts someone tried to drop one off when the manager informed them they don’t take animals the person said they were going to throw him in the garbage. I could not let the poor animal die so I took him in, problem is I don’t really want him, I just couldn’t let that happen. The bearded dragon has a calcium deficiency and an eye infection, none of which are contagious. If you are willing to take this poor little guy in please call me at ...

Took this guy on and he's doing much better. named him Owen.
Although the eye infection has not healed completely, it has been getting better. I have been trying to order a specific calcium bulb that zoo med had made.. The eye still seems a bit swollen, yet nowhere close to when I first got him.. Will this sort itself out with proper diet heat/lighting?

Calcium bulb? Never heard of such a thing, unless you mean UVB bulb.

As for the eye...I suggest taking the dragon to a vet. The eye issue may not have anything to do with husbandry...an infection will only get worse...though improving the dragon's overall health by giving it proper husbandry (ie correct basking temps, UVB bulb, etc) will help boost its immune system but a bad infect is highly unlikely to solve itself...better to have a qualified reptile vet look at the eye to determine the root cause.

Some eye issues can be a symptom of nutritional deficiencies but this would show up in both eyes, not just one. Since you said it was only one eye,I am more inclined to think its not diet related but something else, either infection, injury or disease. Vet visit should be done, especially if the eye problem hasn't healed completely over a few weeks (not sure how long you had him so far).

People need to start being a bit more aggressive with those who threaten to dump an animal or refuse to provide it proper care and see it gets medical treatment when needed. If somebody came to me and told me if I didn't take their obviously sick pet or they will just dump it outside somewhere...I would get their contact info and say I can find a new owner in a day or to, if they can just hang on to it a bit longer...then call the local humane society (or the cops... It is against the law to be cruel to animals here...and willful neglect is animal cruelty).
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PHLdyPayne

Forum Princess

Much appreciated response, was under the belief that it was a nutritional deficiency myself. Will get him checked out. it does seem that both eyes suffered the same problem, yet it does not seem even as one eye is slightly crusty like. yet there is no crust in the eye. it just seems as though he's still recovering. i've had him for about 2-3 months now, he's been eating everything I give him, and thats plenty.

I'll keep that in mind if I hear of anymore of this kind of stuff. The Petland Discount by me had baby beardeds. They had 3, and the runt had a nipped tail, they wanted 80 bucks each for them. I kinda told myself I wasn't going to pay for a beardie with a nipped tail. I went back about 2-3 weeks later and they had moved the beardies from a 10 gallon tank to one of those zilla starters tank. The temp barely peaked at 80, and, the runt hadn't been eating. I was immediately willing to take it home, yet, did not, they had just got off the phone with HQ where they said feed it baby food.
I know someone who just started working there that day and wrote to her later about it. I said I'd be more than willing to take it on as a foster or whatever, she told me to come back to see the manager.
I eventually did, where the manager had me wait in the store for 2-4 hours while he set up a salt water aquarium. After he was finished, all he did was call up and leave a message and said something about them getting back to me, I couldn't believe this. I had just waited in the store all this time for him to make a phone call and leave a message.
While I was in the store the whole time I checked out all there pets and supplies. They had two well grown ball pythons in a 10 gallon tank, a damn near full sized iguana in a 20 gallon long, where he basically spanned the entire tank, and there was one CB? leopard gecko which I liked very much under a daytime uvb with hardly anywhere to take cover. (as for the leopard gecko, I asked about it later on another day, as it was not in the tank, if it had been sold, where the manager told me no, it's still in there; I haven't seen it since). A guy had walked in saying that his snake had died, that he had found a snake outside and put it in a tank (worm snake? he said it would eat worms!?) I tried to usher him towards the iguana as it seemed the most suitable and needed a home the most, yet the guy working there got him interested in a water dragon... at the counter I asked if he had the lights and stuff for the dragon, where he said he would just put it by the window. AND THEY SOLD IT TO HIM! (i mean c'mon, show him the iguana leashes!!!)
Anyway, after his quick message, I was completely thrown off that that was all he had to do, that I had waited all that time, just for that one minute phone call and for him to say we'll get back to you...
So. I had about 100 bucks on me. I had a spare 10 gallon tank that I was going to put the baby in all along, I made it clear that I would buy all his housing supplies in store if they would let me take the dragon home. I told him again, this time saying that I would even pay for the dragon .. when he said the best I can do is take 20 bucks off.. and that if he would let me take the dragon home today I would put a deposit down for it and come back and pay the rest. So he tells me to get all the stuff and we'll see where i'm at as for money... Sure enough I get all the good stuff, work all the details out, leave a deposit for the dragon, pack my back pack up and say so I can take the dragon home right? as we had agreed I'd come back and pay the rest... this guy actually thought I was leaving a deposit for this sick bearded dragon and I was going to come back and pick it up after I just bought all the supplies for it... I was like noooo, if thats the case i'm returning all this. where he then let me take the dragon home... Also, while I was waiting in store, I found that they were force feeding the baby dragon with a dropper by forcing his mouth open, pinching his lower jaw...
Anyway, I walk with him home with his box open to enjoy being outside, get him home, start cleaning out his 10 gallon and I find two mealworms, The first one I threw in there he chomped up right away!! the second he just left. I set his tank up real nice with a digital thermostat and all. Yet when I had bought a cup of mealies for him, i didn't see him eat one, more like he was friends with them all!
I figured a real easy way to get him to eat... I would take a bearded dragon food mix of all sorts of different foods, saturate it and give him alil bit of a dunking, not submerged!! just below his nostrils, where he would keep his head down and start drinking!. then he'd pop his head right up , like a real cool baby beardie.
He even worked his way up to superworms as a baby!, He chomped down on the head of one and kinda just left it.
Yet, I started to notice he was spasmatic, and one morning I woke up to him having something like a seizure. it was horrible, i took him straight outside to get some natural sunlight on him yet it didn't do. tried giving him some water, same thing. He didn't make it and it was an upsetting day.
I went back to the store, and the two other beardies were gone.. Who knows what happend to them ( like the leopard gecko). It seemed like it was inbred though, and/or just missed his mommy, they were still very young.
I did pay for the dragon yet that wasn't my problem, my problem was that this beardie would have died in the store and they were still willing to take my money for it.
This was a seperate location, about an hours drive distance between the store that Owen was nearly abandoned in and where I had gotten Stubbs.

... as for the 10 gallon, this was mainly used as a sleep tank, seperation tank, I have 2 younger dragons in a 60 gallon cube that I would put the baby in and keep a good eye over, they'd get along... that was actually where he chomped on the superworm.

The worst thing you can do is pay anything for an animal at a pet store. In the end it is a sale for them and they will replace the inventory. It stinks but if the animals die and the store loses money then they will stop selling the animals, or they will learn to take better care of them.

I just never go to pet stores anymore. It's too depressing. I just buy online it's way cheaper anyway.

Yeah, BDLvr is very correct...only pet store I go to is one close to me so I can pick up a dozen or two of crickets for my T. For nearly a month I watched a frilled dragon get worse, skinnier and sicker looking. It was in a cage that was too small for it, by a long shot, maybe a 10 or 15 gallon long...it had only a small branch to climb on and obviously was dehydrated. It needed more humidity in the cage...as it did have water. It may have been wild caught...but it was plain to me it wasn't healthy. I did consider offering to buy it at a greatly reduced price...like $5...they were selling it for about $300 or $400...can't recall now...but I didn't have the spare money to pay for any vet bills, which I am sure it would have needed. Nor did I have a proper cage available...but I could have put something together within an hour easily enough. But I knew if I bought it, even at $5 it would be a sale that could encourage them to bring more in.

Ever since I found a local feeder supplier I really have no need to go to a pet store anymore. I order all my feeder insect needs from the local guy at a much reduced cost than I would pay if I bought them through the pet store (ie petstore sells 100 superworms for $14 with tax..the feeder supplier sells 500 superworms for $22, a far better deal, especially since he has free delivery right to my door (which he does himself, not via a carrier) if I order more than $20 (easily to do). I would get crickets from him too..but I need so little...and his smallest batch of crickets (50 for $3) is cheaper than what it costs in the pet store (2 dozen for $4.99), but I usually have the crickets die before I can use them up...though I do feed a fair bit to my dragon, mostly the males. Just don't like feeding it to her, as the cage isn't bug proof...and I have to hand feed to ensure none escape.

Swollen eyes can be a symptom of a systemic infection. You should talk to your vet about an antibiotic treatment. I am treating one now that did not improve with Baytril and eye drops but looks to be improving with Fortaz injections and eye drops.